A link to get
you in the proper frame of mind
Selections from the Koran
"The Dinner Table"
"The Light"
-__________________________________________________________________________________
Instructions
Choose one of the chapters of the Koran, above, for interpretive analysis. To simplify your task, you may want to choose about 30-40 lines of text from the chapter as your focus, particularly if you choose "The Dinner Table" which is lengthy.
To help you understand the exercise, you may want to refer back to Ch. 3 of "Writing Analytically", particularly p.41 where a similar exercise is illustrated using the painting known as "Whistler's Mother" as the subject for analysis. When you apply this technique to text, you work with words and their various meanings, word order, phrases, sentences, emphasis, diction, image and metaphor or their lack, and so on.
Make a list of key details you notice about one of these passages, including content, structure, patterns, contrasts, anomalies, repetitions. Word the interpretive leaps they might plausibly prompt, usually "so what?" or "that could indicate....".
Then, generate in a paragraph or two your own interpretation of one of the selected passages.